Conversation with Leila Hormozi | Ep #59

Hey, I'm Chris Plackey, host of the Lead you'd Team podcast. Running a million dollar business is not easy. And whether you're just getting started with building your team or you've been at this for a while, I'm going to bring you honest, specific and clear practices you can use right now, today to improve how well you lead your team. Let's go ahead and get.

All right, everybody, welcome, welcome. I'm so happy to have you here and join me today with Laila Hermozi. Layla is. I know I say this about all of my clients, but I kind of mean it. I just love everybody I get to work with. I'm so lucky. Layla is the co CEO of Gym Launch Management, which is really the compilation of four businesses that all support.

And.

Serve brick and mortar businesses in some way, shape or form. And I'm going to let her talk a little bit more about that because that evolution is actually even happening right now. Right. As a result of some of the changes that we're all going through. Welcome, Layla.

Hi. Hi. Happy to be here.

I'm so glad you're here. So, Layla, we've worked together for, I think almost a year.

No. Ish. Just about a year now.

Just about a year. Yeah. And have really. This has been such a fun time in your business. That's my word. I don't know if that would be the one you would use. And it just keeps getting more fun. Right. And so this is part of a dialogue that I wanted to have with my clients and business leaders who are all in different, different kinds of businesses, to talk about really how you're managing through and leading through this very disruptive time and also very opportunistic time, like a really incredible time for a lot of businesses as well. So I guess my first question for you is when this all started to kind of wave through the US Right? We saw it coming and we didn't believe it and then it kind of hit like. So, Layla, tell me a little bit about. Just tell everyone kind of what your business does, who you focus on.

Yeah. So we started, my husband and I, four and a half years ago, we started Gym Launch and that was the first entity. And that is just a business that helps gym owners scale their businesses so acquire customers, sell customers, fulfill, retain, upsell. It's basically like a gym in a box, almost the systems that we put into place. And we've been doing that for about four and a half years. And then off of that, we just saw opportunities within that customer segment to just Expand the kind of services that we could offer. So we started a physical products business, for example, which is essentially food and supplements that gyms can then resell to their customers as affiliates of ours. And then we've expanded that past gyms to physical therapists, chiropractors, med spas, anyone who wants to sell food or supplements. And then going hand in hand with that, we developed a software, and that software was developed originally for our gym launch customers. It's essentially a bot with AI backing that gets leads that digitally opt in to show up at their facilities.

And we've expanded that to basically be industry agnostic. So in that sense, we work with marketing agencies that are in brick and mortar. They market for any brick and mortar service, basically, and we plug in with them. And then what that means is that the leads that they're generating for, say, their restaurants or their chiropractors or their gyms, those leads are worked thoroughly so that their clients have more people showing up in their facilities than they would if they weren't using the software. Awesome.

So so much. Really, really trajectory of growth, really, for all of you guys. But you're so nimble too, right? You're really, really adaptable to what's happening in the market as well, which is fun. Okay, so let's talk about what happened, though, in your brain.

When this. Because a lot of your clients are brick and mortar, Right. Like, they're front line, especially gyms. Right. So what happened in your mind when this first kind of hit and everybody was closing or sheltering in place? What did you guys originally think about that?

I think I had numerous thoughts and I just kind of shuffled around which one? I was like, oh, this won't last long. That was the first thought. And then I think within three or four days, I was like, oh, just kidding. This is gonna last for a while.

Yeah. Remember when everyone thought it was just gonna be two weeks?

Yeah.

Remember how cute we were?

It was fun. And then, you know, started going into, you know, I started getting nervous, but, you know, honestly, I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be because I think we had, in our minds, predicted a recession to come sometime around now. And this is obviously much worse than a recession. However, a lot of the consequences are similar. There's obviously unknown consequences because this is an unknown event. But aside from that, you know, it was kind of like, okay, well, the second thought was, what do we need to do to be proactive right now? So over the last year, we've made a lot of moves to be Proactive in case of an economic collapse coming. I'm glad now that we did. But then it was just, what do I do now? I would rather over react and be more proactive and have people think I'm crazy than under react and just kind of hide and retract. And so it just went into, okay for each entity. How do we have to pivot it, say this is going to be the new reality for the foreseeable future? What do we need to do to make the businesses last and make sure that they're not. That they're not as vulnerable as they are today? Which when I say today, that was about three and a half weeks ago.

Right. And next Monday it'll be something else, right?

Totally.

Yeah. And so how did you help? Because I know you and your husband are, you're very fast thinkers, you're very progressive and innovative. How do you keep the team going with you through this process?

I think it's over communicating. And every time I had a. I did a leadership training with them, I think it was like two weeks ago. And I basically talked about over communication, which is if you say it, it should also be delivered in an email and then possibly put in an asana task with a project deadline. Like, let it be shown everywhere. I have during times like this, I attend a lot more meetings. So teams that I wouldn't normally be on their normal cadences, I attend their weekly meetings. I'm on a lot more daily huddles, and I'm just reiterating and relaying information from other teams and then reassuring them of where we're at as a company. I show a lot more face, as does my husband, because I feel like they need to know that we're stepping up, we're not retreating back.

That's so good. And you know what? You made me think of something, because you guys are already manage a virtual business. Right. And how many employees do you have in house?

We have 53. And then outhouse, we have about 45.

Okay, so you're kind of used to this whole virtual people working from home.

Totally. I've never worked not from home.

Like, why do people. Why would anybody do that?

Right.

Which I actually think is going to happen.

I agree.

I think we're going to have this interesting boomerang of people being like, wait a minute, I can be just as productive sitting at home than driving for two hours on the freeway every day.

Probably more. Yeah.

And I think employers need to be ready for that. That's a side note. Like, game on. Like, everything all of our expectations are changing. But I did just do. I released a video this morning to people who are subscribers of my list and clients of mine on how to manage a team when they're working from home and how to hold them accountable. But because you've already been doing that well, and you already said one thing that I think was so helpful. Right. You said over communicate. Increase your. Actually more than one. Increase your presence. Be very present. And you also talked about having standups or like daily huddles. So just in general, what are some of your common practices that you have as a business that operates with everybody in their own part of the world? Yeah, that you think works.

I think structured communication is really important. So, you know, it's mandatory that every, you know, person in a leadership position does one on ones with their direct reports each week. They also have either they can do every other day or every day daily huddles with their teams or even their little pods, depending upon how the department's structured. And then in those, they have, you know, agendas of what they review, typically KPIs of each role and also a chance for each teammate to say where they're stuck as well as what went well the previous day.

Yeah.

And then on top of that, I would say you have to have visibility, so transparency. So two things I do are one, I utilize asana a ton. I love asana, where you can. I basically ask people to always put their projects and deadlines in there, always. And then the second one to that is the calendar. So I was only doing it with two departments until just not that long ago. And then I made it mandatory, which I don't like making things mandatory, but I was like, man, I have to like. It's just people don't know what they're missing. So basically the eight hours that you're working a day, I should be able to look on anyone's calendar and know what you're doing at what point in time. You're not allowed to say project work. You're not allowed to say admin task. It has to be specific.

Yeah. And it is, you know, because I think a lot of times, especially for leaders who are used to just walking around and they see people, it's like somehow they're like, lulled into like, they're working, which isn't actually necessarily even true. But you having that, you know, I like to advise my clients to do that, even if they're not virtual workers. Like, everybody should have a planned week with their folks and what they're doing every Week. So that's really good. I think, you know, we take for granted those of us who've worked from home and have managed teams from home that that could be done. But there does need to have very clear. You need to have clear expectations, clear systems, clear follow up and accountability to those systems too. Right. And it's.

Yeah, that's the.

Yeah, but it's just simple.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, simple things. Like you have, if you have a meeting, send out the notes right after, you know, have someone who's taking notes and they send a recap. Just simple stuff like that.

Yeah, because a lot of people don't learn or pay attention very well in the, in the way that we're now working. They like to be in the room with other people.

So like a lot of people, unfortunately, you know, they've got five kids at home. I see their kids come in when we're on a meeting and I'm saying something very important and I'm like, oh, I hope they didn't miss that.

Yeah, which they did.

Totally did. They would miss it without their kids.

Yeah, you know, they did. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about. Because, you know, you guys pretty much what you said, what I heard you say was first we were in a little bit of denial, like, this isn't going to be a big deal. And then we realized, oh, wait, this is actually kind of a big deal. And so you started pivoting. The other thing I heard you say, that has really been, this has been really a potent lesson, I think, for a lot of small business entrepreneurs. And that is planning for this, whatever this is.

Right.

Like a moment in time where you can't generate the same revenue that you have been used to. And so I want to talk about that a little bit also. But what are some of the things that you're doing right now that are helping you all pivot or even like what are some of the launches or the products that you're changing or how are you changing up your business to pivot?

I think it's like a mix of concepts and then tactics. Right. So conceptually, for the clients that we do have, I said what I want you all to understand is that we do more for the same, meaning we do more for our clients now for the same amount that they're paying us. And so that's the first thing that I wanted to get into everyone's heads. And so we've really worked on the new things that we're going to continue to do and that we're not Going to let off the gas on just over delivering and doing more than we have in the past. The second piece is looking at for all of our, each entity, you know, how do we have to pivot to accommodate the customer? So in gym launch, that means, you know, gyms are really lucky in my opinion, because they're not. It's not a dentist. You are not able to. There's a dentist. It would be very difficult to do something virtually a gym. Online training is the number one thing that's booming right now. Fitness just went up 500%. And so we just. Right. And so we just took them and we, we already had a virtual, virtual gym model. A lot of people didn't choose to do it because to run a gym and have virtual clients was, I think, operationally heavy for a lot of those people. But it's funny because out of necessity now they're all making it work. And so we created that system and then with that we also, we had our software. Right. Which gets people to show up to in person appointments. We were like, well, that doesn't really matter if you can't go anywhere. So we had our developers just work like a week straight every day, all night, taking shifts. And we changed it so it could do remote appointments for online consultations. That led it to zoom and to phone. Brilliant, actually is a huge opportunity because now, you know, even if things open back up, we can serve both kinds of businesses. We don't just. Right, right. And so, you know, it was something in the roadmap eight months from now, but just, you know, said, look, let's do it now and how can we do it as fast as possible? The third piece to that was for food and supplements. We changed a lot of our marketing messaging to health and immunity because people are. So our marketing messaging for anything right now. It goes from inspiration to preservation. Right. So if you look at the buyer's curve right now, the likelihood that someone buys something out of inspiration is like 20% versus if they buy it out of preservation, you get 80%.

Wow. Interesting.

Yeah. And so even with gym launch, it's like, it's not grow your gym and you know, be free and you know, do all that. It's survive. And then with supplements it's, you know, protect yourself, stay healthy, et cetera. And then food. Well, right now people can't go grocery shopping. So that's not.

And you're done. For you, meals are really, really tasty. So. Right. Having those come and show up is good news for people. Yeah, yeah.

And so a Lot of it's. It's changing your marketing messaging to reflect what's happening now, and then, you know, changing your product however you have to. That was really, you know, it's worked very well. It's actually our business. The inflow has increased since we made this adjustment, which, like, drastically, which is pretty crazy.

So let's talk about that, because you know that I just had Jodi Moore on the podcast, and we talked about selling. Right. And there does appear to be a lot of kind of interesting comments and ideas and thoughts about people who are, like, trying to generate revenue right now. And I have a real specific philosophy on that, which is if you can generate revenue, if you're in the kind of industry that can be successful and thrive right now, I think you actually almost even have a responsibility to do that. You're helping contribute back into the economy.

Right.

You can order from your local pizza joint, and you can do all the things that can help make sure those places are still here in three months when we all want to run and flock to them right when we get out of our house. So what are your thoughts? You and Alex, I know, have very clear thoughts about selling, generating revenue, and prospering and being successful. So what do you think about it when it comes to that?

I agree with you. I think that you have a responsibility. I don't think that. I think that people who say that don't understand how the economy works. I think that's really what it is. I think that they're in the dark and they just really don't understand it, and they don't understand the repercussions that that has on everyone. Right? Companies don't make money. If companies don't make money, don't sell, then people don't have jobs. And we're seeing that happen across the country right now. And I think it comes from a scarcity mindset. And so I know we've had clients that have had a hard time recently selling. And I say, you know, selling is just a transfer of belief. And so if you, as the business owner, are hoarding money, not spending money, how are you gonna convince somebody else to give you freaking money? Mmm.

Shoot.

You're not? No. Yeah. So I'm like, if you like toilet.

Paper, by the way, if you're hoarding, if you are one of those people who has 17 Costco things of toilet paper in your garage right now, I'm not having it. I'm mad at you right now.

My neighbor down the street with two newborns is like, I hate You. Because she can't find me.

It's so awful. So, yeah. Hoard. That's such an interesting. I haven't had anybody say that, but you're absolutely right. Like, if you're. If you're busy hoarding, you're not giving, so how do you expect to be able to enlist other people to do the same with you? It's not so fascinating. I love that.

Yeah.

And it's such a healthy way to be thinking. Like, you know, you have a team of people that you. I know, feel responsible for and want to continue to support and help and help their families thrive. And so, you know, it's tough. It's a tough balance, because I know there are some businesses that are legitimately, like, just doors closed. Like, there's nothing that can be done right now. And yet even the ones. You know, my husband's business is closed because he's a physical therapist, but he's doing video consults, and he's figuring it out, and he's actually really enjoying it. And I have another client who figured it out, and she's like, I think I could actually have a better business model doing this than what I was doing before. Which is super interesting. Right?

Just perspective.

Always about that, isn't it? Yeah, it's kind of a. It's kind of liberating and sometimes very maddening that all it is, is perspective. Really is.

You know, we talked to about six other people in our space, and they were down almost 50% in revenue.

Wow.

And, you know, they're feeling bad for themselves, like, oh, it just sucks to be in the space. Huh? And we happen to know one other person in the space who's about the same size as us. And he's up, and we're up, and we're like, just because everyone else is going down doesn't mean you need to, too. But if you believe that that is your destiny, then it definitely will be.

Absolutely. And I do think there's a lot of resignation to that. Like, well, you know, which. Yeah. Yeah.

People are all. That's what we were talking. We talked a lot about this.

A lot.

Which is like, people are already tired. They're already burnt out. They're already like, why did I open this business? So now it's like, well, of course Mom's going to understand when you're like, yeah, you know, what can you do? Covid took me out. Yeah. It's like, did Covid take you out, or did. Did your mind take you out?

Because you decided Covid was a great excuse yeah. And I do think for the businesses that were already struggling and sort of like, yeah, it's time, like, this is a good excuse. Like, that's fine. If this is a graceful exit for you. Yeah, whatever, take it. Right. But if you're, you know, for the folks who are all in, like, I think this is just going to be such an interesting exercise in perseverance and resilience. And, you know, one of the key things I talk about that I keep reiterating in sort of the steps that I'm watching my clients go through is this willingness to take risk in a way, not necessarily financial risk, but more like I am going to risk failing greatly while people are watching me because it's such a. You know, there's this. There's a lot of opportunity right now to be very seen as you fail. Right. Because you have this captive audience, unless they're watching the news or Netflix. And so I do think that that resiliency of spirit, like, just testing and trying, like, that's what you guys have been doing, right, for three weeks. It's like, let's get this. Let's work on this. Let's make this work. Right. And sometimes that pans out. Sometimes you have to pivot again. And I do think that takes a lot of endurance to weather failure.

It does. And I feel that, like, everything that has happened prior to this has prepared us. I think we were having a conversation last night at dinner and Alex was like, man, I just feel, like, really ready for this. And I was like, I do, too. And I think our whole team does, because I had a lot of mentors, you know, who had been through the last recession, and they told me, like, you need a team that's adaptable. You need a team that can move fast. You need, like, high performers. And I just believed them because they told me what happened to their businesses because they didn't have a team like that.

Yeah.

And I'm. Holy crap. It's true. Because I'm watching all these other companies who've got people who are afraid. They don't like change, they can't move fast, and they're failing.

Yeah, absolutely. And I love that because it's such a great echo of your. The core values you guys have for your business. Which are what? What are your core values, Layla?

Grow or die. Speed is king. Be your own boss. Do the boring work. Don't sugarcoat it, and have humility. There we go. Well said.

All of those are currently well referenced daily. Right. Like, they're your backbone, which is you know, takes me out into my, you know, normal day to day work that I do with my clients about why your values are so incredibly important to know and build off of and then hire from. Right, because you've built that team. Yeah.

So good.

Okay, so what would you say? Right, Because I know I have people who are listening to this who are small, just getting started and like really right now, or really big thriving businesses. But maybe even as leaders are a little overwhelmed, what I get a lot is like just every day there's a new thing, there's a new law I need to learn, there's a new decision I have to make. I have people who are like, every day, should I keep my employees? Is it better to let them go? You know, what, what's the advice or the wisdom you would want to share? Just for leaders in general who are trying to hold it down and keep it going, but also are, you know, human through this as well.

I think it's alleviating your own anxiety by dissecting what the worst case scenario is. So the first thing that we did was if revenue were to drop to here, what happens? If it drops to here, what happens? And if it drops to here, what happens? We basically modeled out four scenarios and then we made the decisions right there of, you know, what would we cut, what would we keep, you know, in terms of resources and team, you know, because. And then what's the last resort? Right? Do I think those things are going to happen? I mean, I hope not, but when it comes, if you're, if you have to decide, then you're so emotional that I don't think you can make that decision. Well, yeah, I think planning it and looking at like, that's the worst case scenario. Right? Like, we came down to it where it was like, literally it was like, worst case scenario is like, we sell our CFOs time for her consulting to.

Other, to other companies. Brilliant.

We were basically like, we'll rent out our executive team.

Yeah, she's worth something. Let's make a, let's make a marketing funnel for her.

Yeah, that was pretty much it. And it's kind of fun because it's like, is that even that bad?

No.

My husband and I did that too. And he's like, look, here's the worst case. If you get no more clients, which, right, there's nobody ever wants to work with you again, and I can never open my PT practice again, I could go work for ups, so we could live in an apartment. Like, you just have to hit that point.

Where it's.

I mean, it's. It's so. It's important, but it's. And it does make you giggle. Like, okay, yeah, actually. Okay, I got that. But I'm so glad you actually said that. That was completely unprompted. And a few podcasts ago, that was actually what I said. Step one was, was you've got to do your WCs. Your worst case scenario.

Worst case scenario.

As soon as you do it, you. You do the. That's why I think everybody needs a coach also, because sometimes when you do that worst case scenario, you're man and your brain. That's why nobody looks at it. Yeah.

It's emotional making those decisions.

Want to let Sally go? It's like, well, if you keep paying Sally, then you won't have a business.

Right. Or, you know, I had a business owner on a call in my leading Through Crazy times course that I'm doing who said her worst case scenario was that she died. Right? I'm like, all right. She said, well, I've got two kids and I've got a mortgage, and where would they live? And they wouldn't have cars and they wouldn't be able to college. And I said, okay, so here's the best news. That plan should already exist. If you're a single mom and a business owner and your kids are totally dependent on you. What is that plan anyway? Not just now. Right. But who wants to think about that on a regular basis? Nobody. But then you write the plan and you enlist, right? Like, I've already talked to my girlfriends, like, who are coaches? Like, if I go down with this thing for a little bit, can you pitch in coach for me? Let's make a plan, right?

So many options.

It's always options. Yeah.

But the mind doesn't want to evaluate, doesn't want to look at what if I don't make any money? Doesn't want to look at if I run out of money. It doesn't want to look at that. And so then we avoid it, and then we don't deal with reality. So I love the way that you said it, because let's be emotional now while we're making the plan and process it. Versus emotional without a plan. The day you really have to decide, do I fire Sally? Because then you're just. It's a basket case in that process. I'm so glad you said that. That's it to me. I couldn't agree more. Every single one of my clients who has done that is thriving right now. Doesn't mean they're necessarily doubling their revenue because some models right now, that's just not what's going to happen. But they are thriving. They are still taking action. They're innovating, they're creating, they're engaging whoever their customer base is. They're. They're on it because they did that.

And I, you know, I really think of this time as, like, I'm, like, I am excited to lead the company through this. I feel that I can do it and I'm capable. And I feel like, how much trust can I gain from them during this time and how much more they can respect us, watching us lead them out of this and lead us even to a better spot through this than we were before?

So good.

Think about that. I'm like, what story do I want my team to tell about me and about our company five years from now.

And how we hear? That's actually one of the questions I wrote in the first module of the thing is, what do you want the narrative to be about you as a leader after this is over? What do you want people to say about you because you have so much authority and control over that? And not because of the platitudes or whatever, but really, like, this is an opportunity for you. You're already a tremendous leader, Layla, So that's undisputable as far as I'm concerned. But, like, what an opportunity to really claim space.

You manage people through this. Like, what else you got? Bring it.

Yeah. And I, you know, it's funny, for me, it's also some of the decisions we've made in the last year, year and a half with the company, I think, weren't understood until now. And so, you know, we eliminated an entire department and laid off 30 people. And that was so hard for the company. And I think that a lot of people, like, why would you do that? If we have the money, wouldn't we want to keep paying them, et cetera? And then times like this happen, and I'm like, how glad am I that I did that? Because if we were, you know, had double the payroll right now, it would be a lot less comfortable.

Exactly.

I wouldn't have as much padding to weather people through the storm. Yeah.

You wouldn't have been able to move as quickly if you had 30 more bodies that you had to get on board and shift and move, right?

No, no, not at all. And. And I did it with that kind of thinking in mind, which was, you know, and so it feels like this full circle thing that came around, too, which was like, I Always wondered, you know, was that you wonder and you second guess your decision making. And then this happened, and I was like, that was 100%. The right call is to shore things up when it's going well. Because when things aren't going well, you don't have time to shore things up.

Oh, that's so good. So good. You don't have time, and then you're hasty.

Yeah.

I mean, and there. I know there's a lot of people, even now, even just three weeks into it, who are already reevaluating their business, and they're like, I don't need all of the people back. Like, I got fat. Yeah.

Every so many of our clients, too, are in that position. And that's why I think, you know, I've been trying to teach them best practices to evaluate people, what people do with their time, because I just did that so much in the last year, because I let people who are inexperienced over hire. And that's why I became so good at doing that. And I was like, man, I don't think. You know, there's a book called Double youe Profits. It talked about, like, typically, the average business can eliminate 30% of its workforce. 30 to 40%, and not have any. Not notice any impact.

Yeah, yeah. It's very. You know, I was just talking to a client this morning who let one guy go, and the. Already just in one week, the level of productivity change. Right. Because that also, when you have that sort of extra layer of fat in there, it just becomes a clog in the drain. It just prevents things from happening, too.

Like an extra step to the process.

Yeah. Especially when they're not effective.

So.

Oh, my goodness. So good. I could talk to you forever, which, of course, I always love to do. So thank you so much for spending a little time here just sharing your wisdom. I'm excited to have other people here and learn from you. Where can people, or should people know about you and your business? Where can they go if they want to learn more about what you do?

They could go to jimlaunch.com they could, you know, go to my Instagram. Layla and Hormozi Ormozi is my husband.

And I'll tell you what, Layla has a great Instagram. She. She has kind of the punch you in the face, kick you in the ass things you need to hear every morning, which I love, frankly, every now and then, I'm like, sending her the little pre chants or the heart eyes or the wow face. Like, oh, yeah, that's a good one. Thanks for the reminder. Yeah, well, you're incredibly inspirational. And you know, I'm just so it's been an honor working with you guys and watching all of the work that you've done over the last year. And it's all super fun to keep watching. So keep it up, everybody. You're incredible model for other people. So thank you for sharing your wisdom.

Thanks for having me.

Of course. Thanks for being here.

Hey there, gorgeous. Are you ready to take everything I teach you in this podcast and put it to work in your business and really learn how to master leading your team? If so, I'd love to have you as a client in the Founders Lab to learn more about how we can work together.

How?

Head over to Chrisplackie.com.

Join there. You'll see everything you need to know about the Founders Lab and how to get started. See you there.